Monday, April 13, 2009

Day 7

Our last full day in Northern Ireland.

On the schedule, this day was called our "Day Off - sort of."

We went to Waves at 8 and hung out for awhile because the manager extended hospitality to us by letting us try out the jacuzzi/steam room/sauna. That was a nice relaxing and social experience. Then we were dropped off in town to shop. I don't think I actually bought anything, but it was awesome to walk around with Jason and Chad, checking out the shops and architecture and all of the small family-owned businesses. The church that divides the town by Protestants and Catholics was very pretty. Outside of it, there was a cool stereotypical European architecture garden.

Our next stop was a two hour drive to Dunlap Castle, where we had a tour of a beautiful old castle on a cliff looking out toward Scotland. It was cool to hear about the history of the family feuds and all that, but it was even cooler just to explore the crevices and landscapes.

Giant's Causeway, one of the seven natural wonders of the world, was only a few miles away. We went there next. The rocks on the shore there are hexagon shapes formed by some type of chemical or element in the water, I think Basalt. It was a good place to wind down and the weather was lovely.

After we drove two hours back to the church, the young kids youth group came and we entertained them for awhile. After that, the teen youth arrived for their last night with us. It was sad in some ways to say goodbye to some kids, but glorious in other ways, seeing changes in a few of them since the beginning of the week. Adults in ministry overuse this phrase "planting seeds," but sometimes I wonder if that's a phrase that we just use to convince ourselves that we did God's will even though we didn't see much fruit come out of it. Either way, at least we had some delicious ice cream sundaes.

One last night sleeping in the church.

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